Why is The Latest Guy Who's Pretending He Caught Bigfoot Cavalierly Giving Him Such a Tiny Penis?

It's a publicity stunt. We get it. But why are we shortchanging a mythical beast?

Most Read

Let's face it, as a society who has exploited nearly every inch of our planet, we're obsessed with what little mystery remains. Nothing represents that more than the ongoing quest for the shadowy, towering, ape-like Bigfoot, spawning television shows galore, books, college classes and more hoaxes than you can shake a giant plaster foot cast at.

Well, Rick Dyer claims not only to have seen sasquatch, but to have shot and killed one as well. And now he says he has the body, ready to be unveiled to all at a press conference on February 9th. It should be noted that this is the third or possibly fourth postponed date.

Not surprisingly, the Internet is ablaze with the news, and he's being featured everywhere from the Huffington Post to Fox to, well, now Esquire. Lots of people

are calling bullshit on Dyer, citing a previous hoax of his involving a hairy costume stuffed full of meat, and the many, many holes in his story. But there are those who support him, as well, including (maybe) an award winning documentary filmmaker named Morgan Matthews, who was on site and filming that September day in 2012 when the shooting allegedly took place. Oddly, (or, depending on whether you buy Dyer's story, not) Matthews hasn't released any convincing footage, and at the end of his new documentary, Shooting Bigfoot, there are only the briefest of clips before the cliffhanger conclusion.

Is this real? Does this guy have a Bigfoot body? Does Bigfoot really have that small of a penis? It would explain why he spends so much time alone in the woods. We caught up with Dyer at his home in Las Vegas to see what he had to say for himself.

ESQUIRE.COM: So, this is your second Bigfoot experience, right? But the first time was an admitted hoax?

RICK DYER: Yes, I played a hoax, and I take full responsibility for it, though it didn't start off that way. But yes, I did the hoax and ever since then I have been a Bigfoot tracker. I'm not employed anywhere except tracking Bigfoot, I have investors that let me do that, and on September 6 of 2012 I fully redeemed myself by shooting and killing a sasquatch outside of San Antonio Texas.

ESQ.COM: That's pretty amazing. Now, is San Antonio a popular place for Bigfoot? How did this come about?

DYER: Texas would be the second most (Bigfoot) populated state behind Washington. There was a 911 call that some homeless people called in to the police, they said a Bigfoot dragged a deer carcass across the road. I went down there to try and find the people who made the phone call, I finally found them, and they were sincere. I interviewed them with a British BBC crew that was following me around. And then a year and a half later the BBC film crew contacted me again and said that they were finishing up their documentary, and would I do another film. I said yes, but I want to go back to San Antonio and investigate this some more. So I went down there and I couldn't find the original homeless people, but I ran across more homeless people. They have a congregation in the woods and I found 'em and they said, "look, no one believes us, we're homeless. But if you come and sleep here for a couple weeks I guarantee you will find a Bigfoot." We slept there and didn't come out for six days. On the morning of the sixth day, the previous night I nailed some ribs on a tree, I woke up and saw Bigfoot. I picked up my cell phone camera and that's where we got the tent video. And I was just absolutely shocked, scared, the guy from the BBC crew was shocked and scared, and we saw the Bigfoot walk away.

ESQ.COM: What was the name of the guy from the BBC?

DYER:Morgan Matthews. He is a really famed no nonsense documentary filmmaker. So we went and bought some ribs at the Walmart. We nailed 'em all around the trees, and then that night we heard Bigfoot come back. I chased him down in the middle of the night. I shot him once, he ran, I shot him again.

ESQ.COM: What kind of gun did you shoot him with?

DYER: A thirty ought six model 710. Then I shot him a third time. It took three rounds to drop him. I looked over my shoulder and the BBC cameraman was being attacked by another one. So I ran up to him and made sure he was okay, his face was all tore up, bloody and stuff. To make a long story short, we basically dragged it to the end of the woods, waited 'til the following night, and rented a freezer truck. We contacted the U.S, government, they sent a person down from a university and they verified it wasn't human. They said, "congratulations!" My investors got ahold of another university, and that's where it's been. It's been autopsied, the pharmaceutical rights have been sold, it's a big deal.

ESQ.COM: Now, this was a year and a half ago? Why the wait? Wouldn't you be excited to share this with the world?

DYER: The testing. The testing was crazy. They dissected the body. The heart and lungs will be on display at the medical press conference. The pharmaceutical... I'm just a dumb country boy from Georgia, so I don't know nothing about the pharmaceutical crap, but they said that this specimen contains a lot of stuff that the pharmaceutical companies want. It is amazing what's going on, and I love the controversy because people think, "oh this is just another dumb country boy hoax" but what they're looking at is a real Bigfoot. On February 9 we're going to unveil the medical results with scientists from the university.

ESQ.COM: Which university?

DYER: I can't tell you right now, but you'll know on 2/9. And then on the 28th we're going to do an international press conference. We had no idea it was going to blow up like this when we first released the first photo. So just imagine what it's going to be like when the press conference comes along. I wanted people to know that Rick Dyer shot and killed a Bigfoot, but I couldn't tell them the real story, so I had to change some things so I wouldn't break my NDA. But that's the real story, the one I just told you. I'm no longer under an NDA for that, the only thing I'm under and NDA for is to don't mention the university or the investors until the press conference. I know if you look at my videos and stuff I've got a big mouth, and I like to inflame people enough so they talk about me so my Google will go up high. And it worked for the past year. It's hard to sit at home knowing that you made the discovery of a lifetime and you can't say nothing about it until the bigwigs are ready.

ESQ.COM: You say that it attacked the cameraman. Do you think that there's a public threat from these creatures? Are they dangerous? You don't hear a lot about Bigfoot attacks.

DYER: They're monsters. They intimidated the homeless—stealing their ribs, stealing their food, stealing anything that they wanted.

ESQ.COM: Do you think there are a lot of these creatures?

DYER: Absolutely. If I could estimate a number in the United States, around 500. If I could guess how many there in San Antonio I would say five.

ESQ.COM: Are they intelligent? What do they look like?

DYER: This one's eight foot tall, it's a little over 700 pounds, it's four foot wide, it's a huge beast. They're very intelligent. I think that these have let their guard down because of the homeless people in the woods. They're not used to seeing people living in the woods year after year after year. That's the only reason I think that I got him. I'm not a fake TV show contestant or a Bigfoot hunter on TV. If they wanna film with me, we're not going ten foot in the woods. Ya better pack your batteries.

ESQ.COM: Have you been contacted by the Finding Bigfoot guys?

DYER: Please, please quote me on this. The Finding Bigfoot guys are a bunch of jokes. They're TV actors. I am the real deal. There's a new show coming out on Spike TV called the 10 Million Dollar Bigfoot Challenge. They publicly said that they would give $10 million to whoever has proof of Bigfoot. Guess what? I have a body, and I have been trying to contact 'em, and no one is returning my calls. They can send their doctor, they can send whoever they need here to test what we have. I just want my check. I'm not giving you a piece of bear meat and telling you to go test it, I'm giving you the body. I want my $10 million!

ESQ.COM: You get a lot of hate online. Why do you think that is?

DYER: Because they're jealous, man. The Bigfoot community is a cutthroat business, brother. Every one of 'em is a hoaxer. I've had my Corvette vandalized, I've had people trying to stalk me, it's been a real mess. They're trying to discredit this, they're trying to do anything they can to make me look bad so they can continue making money, because there's much more money if Bigfoot is not found. And I just ask for the general public not to believe everything you read about me.